Strategic Planning in Unstable Environments

This article draws from a multinational survey of 886 firms to show that as environmental instability increases so does planning. However, certain planning dimensions are more strongly associated with environmental instability: in particular generative planning and transactive planning. The two other planning dimensions – Symbolic and Rational Planning – are more strongly associated with firm size than with environmental instability. Planning dimensions might therefore serve different purposes. The implications for managers and academicians, and a case study illustrating how they are being implemented at General Electric in the US, conclude the article.